Gerber notes that in late medieval Castile and Aragon, Jews constituted a small minority of the population yet were highly visible in royal service, particularly as tax farmers, financiers, physicians, and court officials. She writes that Jewish and converso families "dominated royal finance" and supplied many of the crown's doctors and administrators, far out of proportion to their numbers in society. She also stresses that this prominence in key professions contributed to growing resentment and charges that Jews and conversos controlled the monarchy’s fiscal machinery.

Summarizing Gregory Milton’s chapter on economic life, the review notes: "The aspect of economic life in which medieval Jews were most involved was **money-lending**." It adds that Milton argues "the anti-Jewish lender stereotype was not entirely false" because Jews "played a **significant role as lenders** to both the crown and private individuals" in late medieval Iberia. The collection as a whole emphasizes that Jewish communities were deeply embedded in the fiscal structures of Castile and Aragon, including **tax farming and royal finance**.

Discussing the social and economic role of Jews in medieval and late‑medieval Spain, historian Thomas Glick is quoted: "The Jews of Spain, being **multilingual, urban, and literate**, filled an **economic niche** in the predominantly agricultural economy and also **played an important role as intermediaries** between Christians and Muslims." The article explains that Jews were "**prominent as physicians, translators, tax farmers, and administrators**" serving both royal and municipal governments, while also participating in long‑distance trade.

Francesca Trivellato notes that in the late medieval and early modern period, Christian rulers increasingly admitted Jews "on condition that they **extended financial services to the state** (sometimes an individual ruler) and to the poor." She describes Iberian Jews and New Christians as being integral to **royal finance and credit markets**, and emphasizes that after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, "the expulsion and forced conversion of Iberian Jews in the 1490s coincided with a time of unprecedented European overseas expansion" and led to the rise of a **Sephardic trading diaspora** that specialized in **long‑distance trade and finance** connecting the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and beyond.

Using notarial and other local records from late medieval Extremadura, the authors identify more than 900 Jews and conversos and give examples of their occupations. The paper notes that "Castilian record keepers would, on occasion, note the professions of Jewish members of society. Those professions included: trapero (cloth‑shearer), blacksmith, tundidor/tunidor (cloth‑shearer), rabbi, mercador (merchant), zapatero (shoemaker), tejedor (weaver), fisico (physician), tax collector, and platero (silversmith)." This shows that Jews and conversos appear among physicians and tax collectors as well as in a range of crafts, within a regional population that was a small minority of the whole.

Using Inquisition records as a source of socio‑economic information, the authors compare numeracy of different religious groups in Iberia from the sixteenth century back into the late medieval period. They conclude that "our results point at a substantial numeracy advantage of the Judaism‑accused over the Catholic majority," indicating that Jews and crypto‑Jews tended to have higher human capital. The article links this advantage to the observation that minorities with higher numeracy were disproportionately found in urban occupations and skilled professions relative to their numbers in the population.

Discussing medieval Spanish society, the article notes: 'Segregated by law and popular prejudice, Jews usually lived in ghettos in the major cities and entered the professions or commerce.' It continues: 'The greatest prejudice against the Jews came from their role as financiers and tax collectors for kings, nobles, and the Church. Both Ferdinand and Isabella relied almost exclusively on Jewish financiers. Ordinary Spaniards resented Jewish merchants for their success in money lending and trade.' The Spanish chronicler Andrés Bernáldez is quoted listing Jews as 'merchants, salesmen, tax gatherers, retailers, stewards of nobles, officials, tailors, shoemakers, tanners, weavers, grocers, peddlers, silk‑mercers, smiths, jewelers, and other trades; none tilled the earth or became a farmer, carpenter, or builder.'

The article states that, despite their special legal status, "Jews played an important role in public life in Christian Spain." It notes that "many worked as tax collectors, financial administrators or physicians" and that some "rose to prominent positions at the royal courts" in Castile and Aragon. It also mentions that Jews were active as "merchants and artisans" and that these roles contributed to tensions with parts of the Christian population.

The publisher’s summary of a monograph on Iberian Jewries and the economy notes that in late medieval Spain and Portugal, Jews "occupied **key positions in royal finance, customs administration, and long‑distance commerce**". It emphasizes that they acted as "**tax farmers, treasurers, suppliers to armies, and brokers in Mediterranean and Atlantic trade**" and that their commercial and fiscal roles were central enough that their expulsion and conversion "forced the crowns to reorganize major sectors of the fiscal and trading systems" at the end of the fifteenth century.

Felipe Fernández‑Armesto, describing the expulsion of the Jews, writes that Spain 'lost a disproportionately large share of its urban middle class – doctors, lawyers, teachers, and traders – when the Jews were driven out or forced to convert.' He notes that although the Jewish community was numerically small, 'its members were crucial in certain professions, notably medicine and commerce, and in some branches of royal administration and finance.' The departure or conversion of these groups, he argues, 'created significant gaps in specialized services.'

In discussing the setting of a novel based on historical research, the historian explains that "Jewish courtiers throughout the Middle Ages served the monarchs" in Spain. She adds that "Queen Isabella’s physician was a Jew, even though ordinary Christians weren’t allowed to consult Jewish doctors." The interview also notes that "Jewish financiers extended loans to the monarchs and collected taxes for them," indicating that Jews held prominent positions as royal physicians, financiers, and tax collectors shortly before the 1492 expulsion.

In this scholarly lecture on Jewish occupations, historian Jonathan Ray notes that at the "upper tiers of society" in medieval Europe, including Iberia, Jews often served as "tax gatherers or tax collectors" for their lords. He explains that "perhaps the number one thing in addition to medicine" that Jews did at these upper levels was work as tax collectors, acting as a buffer between rulers and the taxed population. Ray also states that Jews were frequently appointed as "physicians to the royal courts" and that Jews who could move between Christian and Muslim lands became "experts in trading currency" and in commerce, roles that exploited their cross‑cultural connections.

The YIVO entry on Spain, summarizing scholarship, states that in the late Middle Ages, Jews "served as royal treasurers, tax farmers, and financial agents" and that they were "prominent as physicians and translators" at court. It remarks that Jews and later conversos occupied "key positions in administration and commerce" that were disproportionate to their small numerical presence. The article links this concentration in sensitive financial and professional posts to the growing social tensions and anti-Jewish riots of the 14th and 15th centuries.

This undergraduate thesis summarizes economic factors behind the expulsion: 'The economic reasons behind why the Jews were targeted were the following: first, medieval Spanish Jews emphasized education, which led to better paying professional occupations. Second, Jews held positions in banking and were subject to fewer regulations involving loans.' It notes that 'Spanish Catholics believed that the Jews had too much economic influence over the kingdoms, and this resentment, combined with religious prejudice, led to the expulsion.'

A popular historical overview notes that in medieval Spain "Jews held significant positions in the government, economy, and academia." It highlights prominent figures such as Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a physician and scholar who served as a high official, and later Jewish physicians and financiers who were close to the rulers. Although the article does not provide precise statistics, it presents the narrative that Jews, while a minority, were strongly represented in government offices, medicine, and trade compared with their share of the general population.

In her lecture segment on Spain, Aron‑Beller explains that under the Muslim and then Christian rulers of Iberia, many Jews "rose to important posts in medicine, commerce and government." She characterizes Spanish Jews as forming a "courtier class" in contrast to Ashkenazic communities, noting that they were heavily represented among court officials, physicians, and translators of Arabic and Latin learning. She emphasizes that this prominence coexisted with the fact that Jews were always a small minority of the overall population.

Modern historians usually estimate that Jews made up only a few percent of the population of late‑medieval Castile and Aragon, perhaps on the order of 3–5% before the pogroms and forced conversions of 1391 and subsequent decades reduced the openly Jewish population further. This small demographic share is often contrasted with the much larger footprint of Jews and conversos in certain urban, literate, and financial occupations such as medicine, tax‑farming, and court administration.

The talk describes Jewish life in medieval Spain from the ninth century to the expulsion of 1492 and presents the topic as an important part of Sephardic history. It is a secondary discussion, but the snippet available does not provide detailed occupational statistics.

The post says the expulsion of all Jews was part of the Catholic monarchs' effort to build a Christian kingdom and that the event produced the Sephardic diaspora. It provides context on the expulsion but does not directly establish the occupational makeup of Jews in late-15th-century Spain.